Over the last decade, African arms imports dropped by 22 per cent, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), but Algeria, Morocco and Nigeria continued to order large quantities of weapons and equipment.

During 2017 Russia exported some $15 billion worth of weapons around the world. This included African nations, which received an array of equipment from fighter jets to ballistic missiles – Africa accounted for 13% of Russian arms sales over the last five years.